The fictions of Cather, Porter and Munro form a sequential chronology of influence and inheritance that spans the 20^th century. Drawing deeply from their origins in Nebraska, Texas, and Ontario respectively, each of these writers explores the place from which she came and the various places her characters are subsequently drawn to – in some cases familiarly rural, in others defiantly urban. Their narratives examine the consequences of relentless landscape, both physical and internal, and the insoluble mysteries, the harms and harmonies, of domesticity. We’ll be reading a representative selection of short fiction, novellas and novels, including Cather’s My Mortal Enemy, A Lost Lady, and The Professor’s House, Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider, and several Munro short stories, whose singular reach characteristically achieves the breadth and depth of novels.